A 22-year-old accused of raping his ex-girlfriend's mother allegedly told her older sister that she “did not have long to live” while walking around her and sharpening knives, the court heard on Wednesday.

Previously, two sisters and their mother testified to the torment they allegedly suffered at the hands of the accused, who is alleged to have pretended to be a demon to justify his actions.

The accused has also been charged with forcing the mother and her daughters to perform sexual acts on each other against their will. The court has banned publication of the names of those involved. 

On Wednesday, the court heard from police sergeant Mario Farrugia.

Farrugia took the older sister’s initial report in January 2019, in which she disclosed abuse she claimed to have been suffering at the hands of her sister’s boyfriend.

The woman, who was accompanied by two social workers, had described a situation in which her sister’s live-in boyfriend was constantly threatening and abusing her.

“She said that he threatened to kill her and that he would cut open her feet and fingers,” Farrugia said.

“She also said that the abuse took on a different form at night, when the accused would switch off all the lights and sharpen knives while circling her, threatening that she did not have long to live.”

The woman told him that the accused had blamed his behaviour on her mother’s obsession with the occult, Farrugia testified, saying that the mother had summoned a demon into the house by experimenting with a Ouija board and that it was the demon who was instructing him to do these terrible things.

She also claimed that the accused would force her and her mother to perform sexual acts on each other, such as kissing each other’s breasts, he said.

There was an incident where he had forced her to disrobe, threw water on her and forced her to stand in front of a fan, in December, while on occasion she said the accused would force her parents to have sex while he watched them.

Both her parents and her sister believed the ruse with the demon, the sister told the police.

Farrugia said that social workers had assessed the victim as being high-risk, after which he promptly informed the inspector on duty, Eman Hayman, of the contents of the report.

He first accompanied the victim and the social workers to the house to assist the woman retrieve her belongings, he said, after which he arrested the accused and took him to the police station.

“I explained to him what the victim had accused him of doing and he denied ever doing those things. He said that the rest of the family would testify to that and back him up,” Farrugia said.

Farrugia described the woman as being “very frightened” when she had come to the station to report these events.

“She was afraid and uncomfortable, she hesitated to tell us certain things because all the police present at the time were men,” he said.

“But she was afraid that something was going to happen to her imminently. She was incredibly frightened.”

Asked about the accused’s demeanour at his initial arrest, Farrugia said that he was relatively calm and it was his girlfriend who seemed agitated.

“He was telling her that there was nothing to worry about and that she knew he hadn’t done anything wrong,” he said.

Defence lawyer Mario Mifsud asked Farrugia if the woman had ever mentioned an incident in which the accused had cut up a winter jacket which her mother was wearing - an anecdote that was described by the accused girlfriend on Tuesday in court.

“No, she never mentioned it,” he said. 

The case is ongoing.